Stallone is back as the titular hero in the fifth and final (or not, depending on box-office success) entry in the long running 'Rambo' series that began with 'First Blood' in 1982. Here, however, the character doesn't really feel like Rambo at all and the same can be said for the film as a whole. It's just a pretty generic 'revenge thriller' that could have easily been an entry in the 'Taken' series, for example. That's not to say it's bad, though; it's just lacking it's own identity, which obviously heavily limits its memorability. Thankfully it's fairly engaging in its first two acts, and actually has a few unexpected and successful beats in the narrative that make it rather interesting. The characters, while basic, are rather well done here, too, and the actors are decent enough to make you care. There's not a lot of action, though; if that's what you're looking for, you're going to be disappointed for a while. Indeed, the majority of the action comes in the final act and that has been largely given away by the marketing. Surprisingly though, as it reaches this final third, it becomes far less interesting because it becomes far more generic. The action is there but it's edited pretty bizarrely, focussing on single blows without any real flow, and it has a weirdly sadistic edge to it which plays into the film's problem of showing revenge as the only way of solving problems. It's rather violent, too, but it seems to be trying its best to simply be 'edgy' rather than make the audience feel any sense of the pain, and it ends on absolutely absurd final kill that kind of breaks its (already heightened) established realism. It doesn't help that all of the 'bad guys' are Mexicans, either, and that the all-American cowboy is the only guy who can take them down. I don't know if this is intentional, but it's certainly giving a political statement that can't really be ignored. Overall, 'Rambo: Last Blood' is too generic for its own good. It's actually fairly entertaining and surprising in its first two acts, but it gets less interesting as it goes along, and ends on a rather flat note. It's a shame, too, as it has a lot going for it and could have done a lot more with the material. As it stands though, it's fine. 5/10
Review of Rambo: Last Blood
